Modern telecommunications system typically utilize digitally encoded data instead of analog data. If analog data is used, it may be converted to digital data for the purposes of switching the data between conducting media.
Switching of data occurs at large telecommunications switches, which may receive and process hundreds or thousands of data channels.
In the process of being switched, digitally encoded data may be transferred over a data bus, which may be any data conductor that allows two or more components to receive and transmit data. For example, where two or more components are connected to a bus, only one component may be transmitting data over the bus, but all other components may be receiving data from the bus. Data buses offer various advantages, but generally require all of the data that is being transmitted over the data bus to be in a single predetermined data format.
For example, a data bus may typically only carry synchronous transfer mode data or asynchronous transfer mode data. Synchronous transfer mode ("STM") data is characterized by a constant rate data stream that does not contain routing information. Asynchronous transfer mode ("ATM") data is characterized by a variable rate data stream that includes predetermined packets of information. Contained within each packet is routing information that is used to determine which packets belong to a given data stream.
Known data bus interfaces impose limitations on the ability to use different data formats on the same data bus. These known data bus Interfaces limit the use of data buses in telecommunications components such as telecommunications switches.